Sri Cakrasamara: A Buddhist Tantra

This book contains Tibetan texts on Cakrasamvara which were the first Buddhist tantric treatises to be translated or summarised from Tibetan into English. Since its appearance in 1919, it has dominated the study of Buddhist tantras in particular and of Tantric thought in general. It was translated by Kazi Dawasamdup with a forward by the leading authority of Tantrism Arthur Avalon. It has been out of print since half a century. The present reprint, with a preface by Lokesh Chandra, fills up a long felt lacuna. The Cakrasamvara belongs to the highly developed division of anuttara yoga tantras. It reveals the steps of Abhisambodhi wherein the three sunyas dissolve into one another. As the incomparable anuttara mantra path it embodies the system of highest philosophical thought of the Tantric tradition. Its mandala is one of the richest and most complex, with syncrestic tendencies of incorporating deities of the Hindu pantheon. The book deals with the philosophy, ritual, rights of empowerment (abhiseka), sadhana, and mandala of Samvara. The present work will be of use to the historian, philosopher, Buddhologist, art historian, Indologist as well as enlighten the general reader who wants to understand the mystical realization of the mandala, and the incessant process of emanation and re-absorption of manifestations into the meditative universes.